Validity of the Turkish version of the European Heart Failure Self-Care Behavior Scale

Objective: The specific purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the Turkish version of the European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior Scale by applying to 494 Turkish Heart Failure Patients. Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional sample survey, between October 2012 and January 2013. The 494 patients who applied with a diagnosis of heart failure were included in the study after determining the clinical diagnosis and type of treatment. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied for the determination of the sub-factors of the scale in Turkish adaptation; content, item and factor adaption. Structural Equation Modeling was used for the purpose of creation and supervision of the structural models of the scale. Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient of internal consistency of Turkish version of the Scale was found to be 0.69. According to the results of the factor analysis, it was determined that the data is in a form suitable for factor analysis and the data have the assumption of multivariate normal distribution. The goodness of fit measures used for the validity of Structural Equation Modeling were obtained to be RMSEA=0.047 (CI=0.00-0.079), AGFI=0.83, GFI=0.91 respectively. Conclusion: The scale is divided into 4 sub-factors according to the Structural Equation Modeling. The European Heart Failure Self-care Behavior Scale is a scale that easily applied to measure the behavior of self-care in heart failure patients. In addition, the scale reaches the conclusion as soon as possible and does not require additional training for researchers. Further, patients can apply themselves the scale easily.